Sunday, October 6, 2013

Preventing Shoulder Strap Abrasions

In August 2012 when I summited California's second tallest peak (Climbing Mt. Langley: Slow Ascent, Lightning Descent) I wound up with a painful strap abrasion on my right shoulder. This was the first time this had ever happened and I put it down to skin that, like the rest of me, is 64 years old and somewhat worse for the wear.

But, on the way down from the summit, I met a group of TwentySomethings who had stopped because one of their party had far nastier abrasions on both shoulders than I ... despite a pack that was about half the size of mine. I helped patch him up with extra moleskin and other dressings in the over-sized first aid kit I haul around.

ADVICE FROM A SPECIAL OPERATOR

Not wanting to go through another raw-shoulder-at-14,000-feet experience, I asked a good buddy of mine, a Chinook pilot with the 160th Special Operations Air Regiment, if he or the boots-on-the-ground SpecOperators he hauled around had any tips.

I quickly got the advice to wear an Under Armour compression-fit tee under another shirt -- preferable a sweat-wicking synthetic.

Compression because it fits like it was painted on and the next layer can rub without abrading skin.

Under Armour because their compression fabric stretches in every direction and does not bind in the arm pits. Don't use a sleeveless tee because the part across the shoulder can bunch and wrinkle. The arm pit part of a sleeved tee anchors things in place.

The compression tee does make things warmer, so for summer use, I cut off the bottom to allow more ventilation. I tried this on a recent backpack into the John Muir Wildeness area of the Eastern Sierra and have never, ever been more comfortable.

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Lewis Perdue: Half A Century Trekking

Outdoorsman Lewis Perdue is a NYTimes best-selling author, entrepreneur, professor, prize-winning journalist and scientist who would always rather be pushing the limits in the middle of nowhere.

This is Lew in his own words:

"I've spent more than a half a century in the boonies:

From the swamps and woodlands of Mississippi to the Finger Lakes and Adirondacks of New York and the Appalachians and Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. And Alaska from the Southeast to the bush and over to Canada's Yukon.

"And for the past 30+ years in the Sierras from The Sierra Madre to The Eastern Sierra and Lake Tahoe.

"I've been designing, hacking & perfecting gear for all seasons. And I still am.